STORY ARCHIVE

Flying Car

Soon ploughing through traffic in car will only be for losers. The smart, upwardly mobile commuter will be zapping to work in a flying car Ė just like in the 60s cartoon series The Jetsons. Thatís according to maverick Californian inventor Paul Moller. Heís built a prototype of his Skycar which heís about to put through the aviation approval process, so it will be ready for market in a few years time. Indeed heís already taken 90 orders and deposits.

Mollerís Skycar looks a bit like the Batmobile. When its engines are horizontal, it drives like an ordinary car. When the engines are rotated to point down, the Skycar takes of vertically and turns into an aeroplane. The aeronautical establishment, however, is sceptical of vehicles like Mollerís. Each time a flying car took off it would blow the neighbours clothes off the line - not to mention deafen them. Also, vertical-takeoff crafts are extremely difficult to aerodynamically stabilise and a flying car will therefore be dangerous. But the scientists at NASA are planning for it. They have developed a radically new aircraft traffic control system that will be able to handle many more flying craft in our skies.

TRANSCRIPT

Narration: Ever wondered where inventors get their great ideas? I reckon they steal them off the tele. Weíve got those videophones nowÖ and soon George Jetsonís flying car will be coming to a garage near you. Thatís if you believe this manÖ flying car expert Paul Moller. He thinks the Jetsonís writers were on the ball.

Dr Paul Moller (Inventor): You know itís pretty much been proven that anything you can imagine comes into reality in a fairly short period of time in todayís world.

Narration: And for flying cars Paul says that short period of time could be just three years.

Dr Paul Moller: This vehicle will be in the hands of 25% of the population within 10 years and about 90% of the American population within 25.

Narration: Paulís an inventor based a couple of hours out of San Francisco, and heís actually been driving flying cars for 40 years. His old models are rusting away in this shed.

Graham Phillips: So you flew this?

Dr Paul Moller: Oh yeah, this flew quite a number of times up to about four feet. We didnít have enough power to go any higher than that.

Narration: This was back in the 1960sÖ Paul insists he didnít steal the idea from a Japanese sci fi movie.

Dr Paul Moller: This was a totally new concept at the time Ė nobody had ever done anything like this and certainly nobody had ever flow that.

Narration: It hovers in the air because itís got the equivalent of a couple of helicopter blades inside it.

Dr Paul Moller: In a helicopter the blades are open, and you see them out in the air stream. Here theyíre inside of a duct which if course protects the air stream and makes it much more safe from the point of view of the user.

Narration: By the 1980s Paul had traded up to, what he even calls, his Jetsonís model. Itís powered by the thrust of those eight fans around the edge.

Narration: That ropeís not supporting the craft, itís just there in case the car drops out of the sky. Each of the eight fans is powered by a 50 horsepower rotary engineÖ rotary engines are used because theyíre almost vibration free.

Dr Paul Moller: Itís a really fantastic emotional high to fly one of these vehicles early on. Then it just rises up from underneath and you feel like you know this just magic lifting force Ė anti gravity

Narration: But these earlier models couldnít be commercialised because building materials and computer technology werenít good enough then days, to make the vehicle safe.

Narration: But the Skycar, Paulís latest model, will get to market he says. Itís built from todayís strong but very light materials like carbon fibre.

G: Can I jump in behind the controlsP: Youíre welcome to.

Narration: And todayís computer technology is so sophisticated the Skycar can be fully automated and therefore made safe.

Dr Paul Moller: Youíll see behind you that thereís a bucket load of computers back there and they do all the work for you. We have about 25 microprocessors Ė you can call them electronic brains that do your thinking for you.

Narration: With your thinking being done for you Paul insists this will be easier to fly than a regular car.

Dr Paul Moller: Just think of this as power.

G: Yeah thatís the accelerator?

Dr Paul Moller: And this is everything Ė this your breaks Ė forward to the side Ė twist if you want it round Ė this determines direction. So everything is there in one hand, you can just relax and if you leave it alone itíll sit there and wait for you to tell it to do what you want to do next. So youíre not really involved in a skill application Ė itís just sitting there waiting.

Narration: There are two fan-driven engines in each of the four ducts.

Dr Paul Moller: So that if an engine fails the beauty of that process that with an engine in front, fan here another fan and an engine Ė should one engine fail you still have control of the aircraft, thatís the very critical thing.

Narration: When youíre ready to fly those engine ducts point down for a vertical lift off.

Dr Paul Moller: You take off vertically and when youíre moving rapidly forward at about 50 miles per hour, the ducts start to come back down again

Narration: It sounded pretty impressive to me, but what do aeronautical engineers think of flying cars? We went to the prestigious MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts. The message here was, maybe Paul had watched a little too much science fiction.

Professor John Hansman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Everybody would like to have a Jetsonís car where you press a button and you end up where you want to go. The difficulty is that we have to balance the reality of the physics.

Narration: John Hansman says the vertical take off is a real problemÖitís so complicated he doubts Paulís computers will be able to replace the skills of an experienced pilot.

Professor John Hansman: So let me ask you, would you be comfortable flying a helicopter that is flown by a computer built by one of my graduate students?

Graham Phillips: Probably not, I get the point.

Narration: Paulís reply is thereíll be plenty of back-up systems in the future.

Dr Paul Moller: Youíve got onboard you know 25 electronic brains Ė if one fails another one takes over Ė if that fails another one takes over so you donít have to worry, itís more reliable than any pilot you have in todayís world.

Narration: But there is a severe noise problem for all vertical take off craft. Take the Harrier Jump Jet.

Professor John Hansman: I donít know if youíve been around a Harrier when it takes off but itís Ė you know a tremendous amount of noise, well above what would be acceptable.

Narration: In this cartoon George Jetson silently slips out of his garage, but the noise from a real flying car would drive the neighbours crazy. The noise from only live demo Paul gave us was loud enough. And this bridge-inspecting robot has only two fans; the Skycar has eight. But Paul thinks future technology will solve that problem.

Dr Paul Moller: So you generate whatís called an anti noise, which is identical to the noise but itís phase-shifted and that allows you to get rid of the noise thatís generated and that will be the future. Thereíll come a time when this vehicle will be as quiet as the quietest automobile.

Narration: But right now itís not noise on Paulís mind, itís getting his Skycar flying. And here it is, in its first test flights. Thereís been no pilot so far Ė the engines arenít powerful enough to lift a person yet. Paul test-flies it by remote control. But hang on. The trafficís bad enough here on the ground. Whatís it going to be like when millions of hoons hit the skies? It wonít be an issue in the future, insists Paul Ė flying cars will be driven and navigated entirely by computers.

Dr Paul Moller: Most people would probably get around with this thing as an air taxi but an unmanned air taxi. In other words you dial thing, thing lands in your driveway Ė or on the street next to you Ė you get out Ė you get in it Ė put in your numbers Ė youíre gone Ė youíre delivered like a package efficiently.

Narration: But John think the laws of aerodynamics will mean carísíll remain cars and planesíll remain planes.

Professor John Hansman: The problem is that I can either design something thatís a good car or I can design something thatís a good aeroplane.

Narration: But over the years Paulís got used to the sceptics.

Dr Paul Moller: For the typical sceptical critic who always takes the safe position. The safe position is to say nothing is gonna change, so thatís how we deal with in the world today. Itís okay, itís great because I donít wanna have competition. If theyíre sittiní believing that Ė Iím sittiní here in the world of competing with only myself.

Sync from movie: Ah, this is the lifeÖ

Narration: Whether this scene from the cartoon turns out to be real life, time will tell.